A few courtesy of The Rooms.
Our famous Newfoundland dog-powered carts.
The National War Memorial in the 1940s.
The famous Sealer's Strike, which began on March 8, 1902. It was, more or less, for us what Winnipeg's strike was for the mainland.
They even hauled a ship up out of the harbour onto Water Street.
An old folk song about it:
Quote:
Attention boys of Newfoundland, who plough the raging main,
And hear about the sealers' strike, that I will now explain;
Ye struck, my boys, for better terms, the terms that ye did like,
And this is why brave Colloway did lead the sealers strike.
Three-fifty was the figure, boys, and nothing less would take,
Ye walked the streets with little food, no drink your thirst to slake;
And no man would give an inch, though hunger pangs they knew,
Until their terms did satisfy both every steamer's crew.
Up spoke the leader of the strike, "Come, boys, now fall in line,
We'll go at once and state our case to Alfred B. Morine;
And he will see we get fair play," spoke Colloway loud and clear,
And from five thousand manly throats went up a deafening cheer.
He called at once on Mr. Baird, on Mr. Job and Grieve,
Who said, "Of course we'll give the terms, and no man will deceive."
The scene that day on McBride's Hill, when Morine took the van,
Will ever hang on memory's wall in every boy and man.
The luck went with the sealer boys, though late they sailed away,
They struck the white coats in their prime upon St. Patrick's Day;
The best of seals the ships brought in, and clever bills laid down,
A year to be remembered when the strike was in the town.
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